A sensorial journey through the strange history and hidden science of scent, featuring various fragrance families, practical guidance for finding your signature perfume, and aromatic projects for the home and body.
A waft of cedar shavings can transport you to a grade-school classroom, while a powdery floral note might evoke the perfume of someone you love. Scent can summon memories, shape moods, signal attraction or aversion, and reveal surprising stories about the ways people have used and understood aroma across cultures and centuries.
Filled with striking visuals and evocative facts, this gorgeous little volume explores humanity's enduring relationship with the extraordinary range of scents around us—and shows you how to understand, select, and experiment with fragrance:
- Explore perfume fundamentals, from top, heart, and base notes to the dry-down that reveals how a fragrance ultimately wears on the skin.
- Discover how aroma can influence mood, why fresh rain on dry earth smells so irresistible, and what makes the scent of sunscreen and tennis balls oddly compelling.
- Consult a glossary of terms to demystify fragrance jargon, from “enfleurage” to “sillage.”
- Learn the story behind Cleopatra's famed perfume—and how to re-create it yourself.
With profiles of wide-ranging scent families—from Citrus and Musk to Gourmand—plus recipes for potpourri, body soap, essential-oil blends, and more, The Story of Scent is an engaging and practical guide for fragrance lovers, fans of strange history, and anyone who has ever lingered happily at a perfume counter.
- A FASCINATING HISTORY OF FRAGRANCE: Explore the surprising ways aroma has shaped human rituals, memories, desires, and daily experience across time.
- FIND YOUR PERSONAL FRAGRANCE: Accessible guidance and expertly curated perfume recommendations help you decode fragrance terminology, identify the notes you love, and shop for scent with confidence.
- AROMATIC PROJECTS TO MAKE AT HOME: Creative recipes for the body and living space invite you to experiment beyond the perfume bottle.
- VIBRANTLY ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT: Cyanotype-style botanical artwork and colorful full-spread illustrations make this an eye-catching volume for the coffee table, vanity, or bedside.
- A GIFT FOR THE SCENT-OBSESSED: An inspired choice for perfume lovers, fans of unusual histories, and curious readers, whether paired with a favorite fragrance, candle, or incense. Ideal for Mother's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, housewarmings, and holidays.
April Genevieve Tucholke is the bestselling author of many books across multiple genres. Her acclaimed, award-winning books, including Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, have been published in seventeen countries and have received ten starred reviews. April Genevieve has lived all over the world, from Savannah, Georgia, to Edinburgh, Scotland. She currently resides in Bend, Oregon.
Lydia Kang is an author of adult and young adult fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. She is a graduate of Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, and is now a practicing physician and associate professor of internal medicine. Lydia believes in science and knocking on wood, and currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska.